The ACC Under-17 Elite Cup has taken place in Nepal over the last nine days, and the home team emerged on top of the pile after beating Malaysia in today's final in front of a crowd estimated at 8,000.

After the group stage, Nepal, the UAE, Malaysia and Qatar qualified for the semi-finals, which were played on Tuesday. Nepal beat the UAE by 21 runs and Malaysia beat Qatar by 55 runs to reach today's final.

In front of a raucous and very partisan crowd, Malaysia chose to bat first, and lost wickets regularly. Only three batsmen made double figures, and they were bowled out for 124 in 37.1 overs. Prithu Baskota was the pick of the bowlers with 3/16.

Nepal made short work of their target, reaching it in 23.3 overs without losing a wicket. Sagar Pun scored 65 and Aakash Pariyar scored 53 as Nepal won by ten wickets.

In the other play-off matches, Singapore beat Kuwait by three wickets on Tuesday to finish seventh. Both teams will be relegated to the Challenge Division. Yesterday Bahrain beat Hong Kong by 5 wickets to finish fifth, and the UAE beat Qatar by three wickets to finish third.

The tournament has been a successful one, with big crowds for many matches. There were none of the age-related disqualifications that have marred recent Asian youth tournaments, mainly because the tests were done before the tournament took place.

The pre-tournament tests did show some worrying results though. Nepal's 14 man squad was reportedly made up of the only 14 of their provisional 30 man squad to pass the age verification squad, and the UAE also had several players ruled out.

The nest Asian tournament will be the Under-19 Elite Cup in Kuwait in April. Taking part will be Afghanistan, Bhutan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the UAE. Two teams will progress to the Under-19 World Cup Qualifier, from which five teams will qualify for the 2010 Under-19 World Cup in Kenya.